If you’re looking for history, then Beaufort, SC is the right place. Being over 500 years old, you’re never too far from history in Beaufort SC. The Beaufort area is home to several museums that house a great deal of local history.
From America’s beginning to the pre and post-Civil War eras, to the formation of the United States Marine Corps, you can see and learn so much about the past by visiting each one of them.
The Beaufort History Museum promotes the appreciation for the history of Beaufort, SC and the surrounding area through its amazing exhibits and through its many events.
The museum sits inside the historic Beaufort Arsenal (c. 1798) on Craven Street in downtown Beaufort. It covers the discovery of Beaufort over 500 years ago, guides you through the early years and up to the Civil War where the seeds were first planted for secession in Beaufort, then through the Reconstruction Era. Address: 713 Craven Street, Beaufort
At the Parris Island Museum, you can explore the long legacy of the United States Marine Corps and also the history of the Port Royal, SC area.
The museum houses thousands of artifacts, images and other things that illustrate the stories within the exhibit galleries from the area’s early Native American population to today’s modern Marines.
The 10,000-square-foot facility is located at Marine Corps Recruit Depot Parris Island. On display at the museum are many artifacts covering Port Royal’s important military roles from the American Revolution through the Civil War, with a focus on the development of the island into a Marine Corps installation after the Spanish-American War, and takes you to the present. Address: 111 Panama Street, Paris Island MCRD
Downtown Beaufort’s historic John Mark Verdier House Museum lets you step back in time inside the impressive Federal-style mansion built around 1804 by John Mark Verdier, a successful merchant and planter in Beaufort.
The house on Bay Street was a stately statement of his wealth and status as a member of Beaufort’s planter class. As the only historic planter’s house in the city open to the public, the 1804 structure paints an accurate portrait of how Beaufort’s wealthiest citizens lived during the height of the pre-Civil War Antebellum period when cotton was king and wealth was everything.
An important location throughout history, the Marquis de Lafayette stopped at the Verdier House and enjoyed a lavish ceremony and party here in 1825 on his farewell tour of America before he departed for France.
The mansion was also used as the Federal Headquarters by Union troops during the occupation of Beaufort during the Civil War, and was even home to the first telephone ever installed in Beaufort, SC. Address: 801 Bay Street, Beaufort
The York W. Bailey Museum at historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island offers a look into the stories of the people whose lives were changed by this important American institution.
Penn Center was the very first school opened to educate former slaves as America’s Reconstruction Era started after the Civil War.
View many photographs of Penn Center’s students at work, some of which were taken as far back as the 1860s. Videos offer historic and personal recollections of Penn Center’s past and local artists fill the gift shop with handmade sweetgrass baskets and colorful, original cultural artwork. Address: 16 Penn Center Circle West, St. Helena Island
The Historic Port Royal Foundation Museum offers a glimpse into the history of Port Royal, which was always an important location because it’s the deepest natural port along the Atlantic Ocean, south of New York.
The museum also tells the story of old Port Royal, the creation and eventual demise of the Port Royal Railroad, and lots more. Address: 1634 Paris Ave., Port Royal
